The present invention was developed as a technique for controlling a wild oil or gas well, although it may find application in other applications where one wishes to quickly close a tubular assembly.
The invention was conceived with the notion of providing a one-shot explosive procedure which could be used on a wild well to crimp the pipe assembly to restrict the flow passageway through the assembly and thereby stop or reduce the hydrocarbon flow.
The invention incorporates some concepts taught in the prior art. More particularly, it is known to use shaped charges to cause directionally controlled explosive shock waves or jets, for example for cutting through a wall. It is also known to use an incompressible dense medium (water or sand) to confine detonation products on one side to promote jetting of the detonation products in a direction away from the confining material (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,601 as an example).
However, to the best of our knowledge there is no prior art teaching as to crimping or compressing a well stem with shaped charges or to a workable system for achieving that end. It is the objective of the present invention to provide such a system.